Hong Kong authorities said late Tuesday (February 21) that they cancelled the visa of a controversial Chinese biophysicist after the initial granting of the visa raised hackles in the scientific community. The biophysicist- He Jiankui was handed a prison term in 2019 for illegally experimenting on human embryos in a controversial exercise that saw twin girls born with genes he had altered to confer immunity to HIV, a report by news agency AFP said on Tuesday. He was released from jail in April 2022.
Earlier on Tuesday, Jiankui said that his Hong Kong visa was approved and he was seeking collaborators to further his work on gene therapy for rare diseases. Speaking to reporters in Beijing, he said, “I am currently contacting Hong Kong’s universities, scientific research organisations, and companies. If there are definite and suitable opportunities, I will consider working in Hong Kong.”
Speaking to AFP, Kiran Musunuru, a genetics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said that Hong Kong’s initial decision to grant Jiankui a visa was “appalling”. He Jiankui is a convicted criminal” and “woefully incompetent as a scientist. Experimenting on children and causing them genetic damage, as he did, is in my view a form of child abuse” Musunuru said.
Later in the day, the Hong Kong government said it had voided the visa of an individual who “made false statements” in the application, adding that a criminal probe had been launched. A statement did not name Jiankui but referred to the details of his case. The statement said that future applicants under the visa scheme must declare if they had a criminal record. Citing officials, AFP reported that this requirement did not exist when the Chinese biophysicist submitted his forms.
In 2018, He Jiankui, who studied at Stanford University, stunned the scientific community by announcing the birth of genetically engineered twins. A third child who had undergone gene editing was born the following year. After facing global condemnation, Jiankui was jailed in December 2019 by a Chinese court and fined $430,000 (3 million yuan).
According to local media, the court said that he had been “illegally carrying out human embryo gene-editing intended for reproduction.” Apart from Jiankui, two of his researchers- Zhang Renli and Qin Jinzhou were also sentenced in 2019. The court’s verdict said that the trio did not obtain qualifications to work as doctors and knowingly violated China’s regulations and ethical principles.
(With inputs from agencies)
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